MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES

LECTURE NO. 09
MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES
MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES
 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
HOW VARIABLES ARE MEASURED
• To test the hypothesis that workforce diversity affects organizational effectiveness we have to
measure workforce diversity and organizational effectiveness.
• Measurement is the assignment of numbers or other symbols to characteristics (or attributes) of
objects according to a prespecified set of rules.
• Objects include persons, strategic business units, companies, countries, bicycles, elephants, kitchen
appliances, restaurants, shampoo, yogurt, and so on.
• Examples of characteristics of objects are arousal‐seeking tendency, achievement motivation,
organizational effectiveness, shopping enjoyment, length, weight, ethnic diversity, service quality,
conditioning effects, and taste.
• It is important that you realize that you cannot measure objects (for instance, a company); you
measure characteristics or attributes of objects (for instance, the organizational effectiveness of a
company).
 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
HOW VARIABLES ARE MEASURED

• In a similar fashion, you can measure the length (the attribute) of a person (the object), the
weight of an elephant, the arousal‐seeking tendency of stockbrokers, the shopping
enjoyment of women, the service quality of a restaurant, the conditioning effects of a
shampoo, and the taste of a certain brand of yogurt.
• To be able to measure you need an object and attributes of the object, but you also need a
judge.
• A judge is someone who has the necessary knowledge and skills to assess “the quality” of
something, such as the taste of yogurt, the arousal‐seeking tendency of stockbrokers, or the
communication skills of students.
• In many cases the object and the judge are the same person. For instance, if you want to
measure the gender (the attribute) of your employees (the objects),
 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
HOW VARIABLES ARE MEASURED

• In a similar fashion, you can measure the length (the attribute) of a person (the object), the
weight of an elephant, the arousal‐seeking tendency of stockbrokers, the shopping
enjoyment of women, the service quality of a restaurant, the conditioning effects of a
shampoo, and the taste of a certain brand of yogurt.
• To be able to measure you need an object and attributes of the object, but you also need a
judge.
• A judge is someone who has the necessary knowledge and skills to assess “the quality” of
something, such as the taste of yogurt, the arousal‐seeking tendency of stockbrokers, or the
communication skills of students.
• In many cases the object and the judge are the same person. For instance, if you want to
measure the gender (the attribute) of your employees (the objects),
 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
HOW VARIABLES ARE MEASURED
• Attributes of objects that can be physically measured by some calibrated instruments pose no measurement problems.
For example, the length and width of a rectangular office table can be easily measured with a measuring tape or a ruler.
“How long have you been working in this organization?” or “What is your marital status?”
• The measurement of more abstract and subjective attributes is more difficult, however. For instance, it is relatively
difficult to measure the level of achievement motivation of office clerks, the shopping enjoyment of women, or the
need for cognition of students.
• Certain variables lend themselves to easy measurement through the use of appropriate measuring instruments; for
example, physiological phenomena pertaining to human beings, such as blood pressure, pulse rates, and body
temperature, as well as certain physical attributes such as length and weight.
• But when we get into the realm of people’s subjective feelings, attitudes, and perceptions, the measurement of these
factors or variables becomes more difficult.
• Accordingly, there are at least two types of variables: one lends itself to objective and precise measurement; the other
is more nebulous and does not lend itself to accurate measurement because of its abstract and subjective nature.
 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
• Reduction of abstract concepts to render them measurable in a tangible way is called operationalizing the
concepts.
• Operationalizing is done by looking at the behavioral dimensions, facets, or properties denoted by the concept.
• These are then translated into observable and measurable elements so as to develop an index of measurement
of the concept.
• Operationalizing a concept involves a series of steps.
• The first step is to come up with a definition of the construct that you want to measure.
• Then, it is necessary to think about the content of the measure; that is, an instrument (one or more items or questions)
that actually measures the concept that one wants to measure has to be developed.
• Subsequently, a response format (for instance, a seven‐point rating scalewith end ‐points anchored by “strongly
disagree” and “strongly agree”) is needed,
• Finally, the validity and reliability of the measurement scale has to be assessed.
MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
OPERATIONALIZATION: DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
• An example of a construct with more than one dimension is aggression.
• Aggression has at least two dimensions: verbal aggression and physical aggression. That is, aggression might
include behavior such as shouting and swearing at a person (verbal aggression), but also throwing objects, hitting a
wall, and physically hurting others (physical aggression).
• A valid measurement scale of aggression would have to include items that measure verbal aggression and items that
measure physical aggression.
• A measurement scale that would only include items measuring physical aggression would not be valid if our aim
were to measure aggression. Likewise, a scale that would only include items measuring verbal aggression would
also not be a valid measure of aggression.
• Thus, a valid measurement scale includes quantitatively measurable questions or items (or elements) that adequately
represent the domain or universe of the construct; if the construct has more than one domain or dimension, we have
to make sure that questions that adequately represent these domains or dimensions are included in our measure.
DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS OF “ACHIEVEMENT
MOTIVATION”
 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
OPERATIONALIZATION: DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES:
OPERATIONALIZATION: DIMENSIONS AND ELEMENTS
 EXERCISE

• Try to come up with two unidimensional and two multidimensional abstract concepts.
Explain why these concepts have either one or more than one dimension.